Posts Tagged ‘a-ha talent grant’

The fourth and final winner of the a-ha talent grant was revealed at the VG chart show in Bergen tonight.

Local rapper Lars Vaular and indiepop-band Casiokids were the two finalists tonight, and the winner of one million kroner turned out to be Casiokids. The band released its second album earlier this year.

No a-ha members were able to be in Bergen tonight, but Magne appeared in a video clip from Budapest, where a-ha are playing indoors at the city’s sport arena tonight.

Adresseavisen has an interview with Magne today, which was done while he was in Trondheim on Wednesday.

I have translated some parts of it:

About talent grant winner Moddi:
“Of all the artists that ended up being nominated, Moddi is probably my favorite. He has a very strong stage personality. He makes me a bit happier to be Norwegian. He is part Sigur Rós, part Damien Rice, he writes interesting songs that he performs in a sad and believable way.”

About the farewell tour:
– How is it to say goodbye throughout a whole year?

“It’s better to make a one-year farewell, than keep doing it for ten years, like some bands are doing.”

– You don’t feel like a Rolling Stone dinosaur when you’re standing there, still singing “Take On Me” after 25 years?

“No, no. And the Stones are 30 years older than us!”

– Will you be suffering from mental phantom pains when a-ha is finished for good?

“Maybe I’ll be longing back to what has been. Still, even if you’re fearing phantom pains, it’s not wrong to amputate your foot if it’s the only way out.”

Picture from Adresseavisen

About Apparatjik:
“Even though the music isn’t too far removed from a-ha, we still can’t be compared to a-ha. It’s not a particularly commercial concept. We’re a kind of loose collective of creative individuals who work with other people within the field of arts.”

“I guess the name [Apparatjik] plays on the fact that we want to make things a bit difficult for ourselves, tear up the format a little.”

About the upcoming a-ha concert at Trondheim’s Lerkendal stadium:
– People in Trøndelag are known to be slow [ticket buyers]. Do you fear a low audience turnout?

“I’ve been given that warning, yes. It’s strange really, the people from Trøndelag that I know are far from being slow.”

“For fuck’s sake, you guys have to come to our concert! We’ll put on a real show and turn up the heat at Lerkendal. We’ll offer less make-up and less pyro than when Kiss played there, but there will be much more feelings instead. Because this is the end, a-ha will never again return.”

The newspaper has also asked Magne about some of his favorites:

Favorite albums: Beck’s “Sea Change”, Leonard Cohen’s “Songs of Love and Hate”, Radiohead’s “The Bends”.Favorite movies: Everything by the Cohen brothers. I quite like movies by Kieslowski og Sydney Pollack. “Repulsion” by Polanski and “Midnight Run” with Robert De Niro.Favorite books: “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, “Possession: A Romance” by A.S. Byatt, “The Idiot” by Dostoyevsky.Favorite comics: I don’t read comic books.Favorite TV-shows: “The Sopranos”, “The Wire”, “South Park”, “Entourage”.Favorite theatre plays: I really liked this Strindberg play that I saw at the national theatre not too long ago.

Where do you go out on the weekends: I never go out on the town.

Magne’s weekend: My weekends are not too different from the weekdays. I’m working on things that I find interesting. I read books, watch movies and spend time with my sons, 16 and 20 years old – if they can be bothered to hang out with their father. I drink way too much espresso, take the dog for a walk and cook (my wife will probably object to the part about cooking, I don’t cook as much as I used to).

This time it was Magne’s turn to open the envelope and reveal the winner – which turned out to be Moddi.

Moddi has received good reviews for his debut album Floriography, which was released in February 2010, and will be supporting a-ha at Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim on September 4th.

“Moddi has strength and integrity”, Magne says.

“Moddi has the balls to face [tonight’s] audience without making any compromises, he just does his own thing. He has strength and integrity“, Magne told VG after the show. Magne has liked Moddi’s music for several years, and makes comparisons to Damien Rice and The National when he talks about the young songwriter.

The final a-ha talent grant will be given out at the show in Bergen on July 14th, where Lars Vaular and Casiokids are the two last finalists.

“Every time I step out the door, I’m giving away a million kroner. Now we need to earn more, so we’ll be able to give away even more money next time“, Magne jokingly told VG.

Meanwhile, the international press has finally started to take notice of the a-ha talent grant. Here are links to some new articles:

“How much is 1m kroner? It’s about £100,000. In other words, A-ha are giving each of four bands a grant worth twice that of literature’s most famous award, the Man Booker prize. It is, as far as we can tell, one of the biggest arts prizes in the world“, Guardian’s Sean Michaels writes in his article.

Morten was at VG and NRK’s summer show in Stavanger tonight, to hand out another 1 million kroner to the second winner of the a-ha talent grant.

The first finalist tonight was the band The Pink Robots, which has recently had a hit with the song “Curly”. The other finalist was Susanne Sundfør, who released her second and critically acclaimed album The Brothel earlier this year.

Morten announced that the winner was Susanne Sundfør, who came on stage and received a big cheque.

“I’m a bit shaky, but very happy. I had no idea this would happen. Now I’ll hopefully get a chance to promote my music abroad and travel a lot“, Sundfør told VG afterwards.

“She has all that it takes to make it big, and has every opportunity to succeed“, Morten said of the winner.

Listen to “The Brothel”, the haunting title track from Susanne Sundfør’s latest album, on YouTube here.

Magne presents Shining with a cheque for 1 million kroner in Oslo, June 18th

Magne appeared on stage in front of 80.000 people at Rådhusplassen in Oslo last night, to hand out 1 million kroner to the first winner of the a-ha talent grant.

The jazz/metal band Shining and singer-songwriter Hanne Hukkelberg were the two finalists in Oslo at VG and NRK’s annual free summer show (where a-ha headlined in 2009), which also featured performances by Madcon, Scouting For Girls, Jason Castro and Scissor Sisters, among others.

Magne annoucning the winner

After Shining and Hukkelberg had performed one song each early in the show, the audience in Oslo (and TV audiences around the country) could vote for their favorite by SMS.

Near the end of the show Magne came on stage to open the envelope revealing the winner.

“We considered quite a lot of artists, together with an international jury, and both these artists have a unique style. We think they have a good chance to have further success within their genres“, Magne said when asked why a-ha had chosen these two finalists.

Afterwards he revealed the winner: “It’s a great honour, on behalf of a-ha, to present the very first of our talent grants to…Shining!”

Shining had been active prior to tonight’s concert, urging their fans to vote for them, as can be seen in this YouTube video.

Magne:“I am pretty sure that Shining has a real chance to leave a mark internationally. So we’re hoping that the money can help them to get heard, to get noticed by people. That’s what it takes, in our opinion.”

“They have something that’s quite unique for them at the moment, and there should be several filmmakers in Hollywood eager to work with these guys now.“

Magne and Morten first announced the a-ha talent grant at a press conference on 1 March

New details about the a-ha talent grant competition in Norway have been announced today. Instead of having the bands and artists themselves signing up to be nominated, the candidates will be nominated by a jury consisting of a-ha and six other people from the music industry. The jury currently has a list of around 30 bands and artists that will be reduced to 8 finalists over the next month or so – 2 from each part of the country (Northern- and Mid-Norway, Western Norway, Southern Norway and Eastern Norway).

a-ha have teamed up with Norway’s largest newspaper VG for this, and the 8 finalists will compete against each other at the “VG Lista” summer shows that are held in various cities every year. The 4 lucky winners will then be decided by the Norwegian people, who can vote by SMS or online at VG Nett.

“It’s really cool that the audience can participate, and that we’re making this as fun as possible for as many as possible“, Magne tells VG today.

In addition to one million kroner and a support gig for a-ha, the winning bands/artists are given newspaper ads in VG worth one million kroner.

“We’re looking for a combination of distinct artistic expression and a confident attitude – and we think it’d be really fun if we end up with artists that are more of a fresh breath of air than just obvious favorites to win“, Magne says.

This is the jury of six people that will assist a-ha in choosing the eight finalists:
– Tone Lise Skagefoss (Norway) – music journalist and former judge on Norwegian Idol
– Øystein Ronander (Norway) – works for by:Larm and Bureau Storm
– Kristian Riis (Denmark) – manager and musician in the Danish band Nephew
– Martin Terefe (Sweden) – London-based producer and Apparatjik-member
– Marie Dimberg (Sweden) – manager of the band Roxette
– Markus Hartmann (Germany) – head of A & R at Starwatch Records

Update: According to this article from NTB, we can expect a lot of interesting releases and events this year, including:

– new deluxe editions of both Hunting High And Low and Scoundrel Days
– a new anthology
– updated edition of Jan Omdahl’s book “The Swing Of Things”
– the national library in Oslo will hold an a-ha exhibition
– a documentary
– a live DVD
– photo book
– plus a few more surprises

All this was announced by a-ha manager Harald Wiik as he opened the press conference.